Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) systems have many advantages over the traditional activated sludge systems such as small foot print, better treated water quality and no sludge bulking. Such systems, however, do have a number of problems such as the high energy consumption to supply oxygen to bioreactor with high mixed liquor concentration, difficulties in handling large influent flow variations and low biological phosphorous removal potential.
The MBR is a dynamic system that never reaches steady state. The dynamic factors include:
Year around seasonal variation of influent and mixed liquor temperature.
Diurnal, weekly and seasonal variation of influent flow rate.
Diurnal, weekly and seasonal variation of pollutant concentration.
Membrane permeability before and after membrane cleaning.